Sunday, June 21, 2015

Movie review - Jurassic World (PG13) - Review by Daniel Kilgallon

Run Time: 124 min

Jurassic World is a new science fiction action
movie and the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park film series. The
movie is directed by Colin Trevorrow and stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas
Howard, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ty
Simpkins and Nick Robinson.
I actually never bothered to watch either of the poorly reviewed sequels to the
first Jurassic Park movie, but as most human beings should, I have seen
the original 1993 masterpiece. Jurassic Park is undeniably one of the
most influential movies ever made, as the CGI used to bring the dinosaurs to
the big screen was completely unheard of at the time.

The visual effects for
that film easily hold up today and set the bar high for every film that came
after it. In fact, until it was topped by 1997’s Titanic, Jurassic
Park was the highest grossing film of all time. That being said, despite
this fresh take, I must say that I was a bit skeptical heading into the
theater, largely due to the negative reputation of the second and third
installments.

Taking place 22 years after the events of the first
movie, the fictional island of Isla Nublar finally features a fully functional
dinosaur theme park called “Jurassic World”. The park has been operational for
ten years at this point in time, so in order to bring back popularity, Claire
Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and the rest of the park operators decided to
create a genetically modified dinosaur known as the Indominus Rex. Of course,
before long the creature breaks loose and goes on a killing spree throughout
the park, leaving an expert dinosaur trainer named Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and
the rest of the people in the park all fighting for their own survival.

For starters, Jurassic World isn't nearly as good
as the original and I don’t think that anybody, including myself thought it
would be. However, that is hardly an insult, as this new movie was
significantly better than I expected it to be. The plot got going quickly and
there was certainly plenty of exciting dinosaur action from start to finish.
The acting was pretty good too, particularly from Chris Pratt (Guardians of
the Galaxy), but I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that the
legendary Jeff Goldblum didn't make an appearance. Putting that minor complaint
aside, Jurassic World is an absolute blast of a summer blockbuster.